Here's a recap of what happened at Tuesday's Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees work session:

Budget Cuts Lead to Calls for Social Spending

Sleepy Hollow trustees held their third public hearing on the proposed 2010-2011 budget last night

The hearing attracted a number of individuals who had concerns about the village funding social service centers such as Neighborhood House and the Community Opportunity Center.

The current proposed budget cuts all $6,000 in funding for Neighborhood House. The village also used to pay $10,000 to the COC each year for operating expenditures, but discontinued funding last year.

Neighborhood House Board President Francesca Spinner urged trustees to reinstate spending, saying it was vital to the center's ability to run operations and fundraise.

"We are not asking for a huge amount, and the village has been kind in supporting us all these years," she said. "We use it (municipal money) as a building block to raise funds."

Trustees had opted to remove the funding based on the assumption that similar services would be provided at the Sleepy Hollow Senior Center which is slated to open next month. Spinner disagreed with that assessment.

"We don't compete with the (senior) programs in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, we are more like an advocacy group for seniors," she said. "We're open four days a week, 50 weeks of the year. We act as a support for many of our more fragile seniors who may not get outside Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow that much."

Members of the Westchester Community Opportunity Program  (WestCOP) were also in attendance at Tuesday's meeting. WestCOP recently came to an agreement to manage the COC beginning this month, and are urging the board to reinstate its $10,000 funding commitment.

COC site administrator Gordon Albert was on hand to bring trustees up to speed on the developments at the COC. He said eviction prevention programs, social services and food pantry services were all being brought online within the coming weeks– services that will be utilized by Sleepy Hollow residents.

"We're here, and we're here to work cooperatively with you," Albert said.

After the comments, Mayor Ken Wray closed the public hearing.

"We have a difficult task is front of us," he said. "We expect to finish on time, and expect to give your concerns strong consideration."

New Water Storage Tank a Dire Need

Trustees and the public were brought up to speed on the need for a new water storage tank in the village.

The current tank is over 80 years old, and woefully inadequate in terms of capacity. Its minimal storage abilities led to a water emergency last month (read the full story here) where fire hydrants were out of service, and the village came with hours of running out of water.

"If a fire broke out we'd lose our downtown," Wray said. "It's not the kind of scenario I like to think about."

A new water storage tank will need to hold at least 2.4 million gallons of water, enough to keep the village running for 24 hours, the current tank holds a little over 800,000 gallons. 

However, the cost and site of the project are still being narrowed down.

Two location options are in mind; one would replace the current storage tank located on the Rockefeller State Preserve, the other would build a supporting, supplemental tank near Phelps Memorial Hospital.

The project will cost at least $4.5 million and significantly more if trustees had to go for the Phelps option because it would require maintenance of two reserve facilities and an additional two miles of new piping.

The village's administration, as well trustees and the mayor, have been canvassing the offices of politicians for monetary support. So far, US Sen. Chuck Schumer has promised to include a $1 million earmark for the project in next year's federal budget, however that money is not guaranteed. 

Trustees Take IT Support to Task

Justin Cresswell, from village's Albany-based IT support provider, WSG, was at Village Hall to provide an assessment of the village's technical needs.

What Cresswell received were the comments of a frustrated board who said the technology within the village government was still stuck in the previous century.

"The board has been frustrated by the IT situation," Trustee David Schroedel said. "We come from professional backgrounds and we're almost appalled by the lack of it initiative."

Trustees said it was all but impossible get help for routine problems issues relating to things like e-mail, but also said there were deep structural problems that made it impossible for task automation and cross-department communication over the computer network. Trustees said they also felt removed from the IT provider.

"I can pay someone five days a week to be here, I don't need to be paying you what I am paying," Trustee Karin Wompa said. "There seems to be no comprehensive communication or vision."

Cresswell said that the village had, in many instances, failed to take recommendations for repairs and replacements that would fix a lot of the structural problems within the village's network. He cited a major server that crashed in January as one example.

"I think it is very easy to get into that position where there is a credibility situation," Cresswell said. "We don't blame anyone, we're the vendor that takes responsibility for putting in a solution."

Trustees said they would give WSG one more chance to bring the village into the 21st Century, and said they were expecting a full report on what, if anything, WSG could do.

"We're looking for solutions," Trustee Evelyn Stupel said. "We need someone to analyze our problems and tell us how to fix them."

Friends of Douglas Park Address Trustees

The Friends of Douglas Park community group were out in force at Tuesday's meeting to make a presentation about the continued effort to build a natural playground at Douglas Park.

You can see a letter written by the group, and the presentation showing the group's inspiration, attached to this article.

The group came with three bids in hand from companies that are proficient in the design of natural playgrounds: Natural Playgrounds, EarthPlay and Follow the Child. All of the designs would address ways to mitigate erosion issues in the park using natural elements.

Despite there being $50,000 in secured funding for the park, trustees continued to be wary about the cost, and entertained the idea of using a previous rough design for the park that was made by Village Architect Sean McCarthy.

There were no concrete agreements made during the presentation and subsequent discussion, but trustees agreed to look over the proposals and quotes the group provided.

Trustees Approve Tree Removal

In what is sure to be an ongoing issue in the village, trustees approved the removal of a tree at 347 N Broadway.

The person who leases the property had requested permission to remove the tree some months prior. The request was denied by the village's Tree Commission, which has to approve the removal of all trees.

Since that decision, an adjacent property owner gave the property owner of 347 N Broadway notice they they would be hold them liable if the tree were to fall. The 347 N Broadway property owner then received an independent assessment from an arborist stating that the tree needed to be removed. The property owner then appealed the Tree Commission's decision – an appeal that goes directly to the Board of Trustees.

Trustee Barbara Carr said the village should hire its own independent arborist to make assessments about the health of targeted trees, saying that it was a well-known practice that some arborists could make opinions based on the needs of their clients, not on the health of a tree.

The village's legal counsel, Janet Gandolfo, said even if the village received an assessment that a tree shouldn't be removed, if the tree were to fall, the village could still be brought to court based on the original arborist's assessment provided by the property owner.

"Even with an independent assessment, you are going to have to err on the side of caution," she said.

The situation basically guarantees that any arborist's assessment stating a tree may fall down, would trump any move by the board and the Tree Commission to deny tree removal.

Trustees said there was no option but approve the appeal for the tree's removal based on the documentation provided by the property owner; they did so unanimously.